Tips From The Community: Level Up Your Homeschool

Homeschooling is a dynamic adventure, blending creativity, flexibility, and a deep commitment to nurturing each child’s potential.

As parents we wear so many hats; teacher, motivator, and innovator. Our goal is to craft learning experiences that align with our kids’ unique needs and passions. We asked our community to share their best tips on how to level up your homeschool from celebrating breakthroughs with family game nights to transforming spelling practice into window-art sessions.

In this article, we’ve gathered heartfelt insights and practical tips from the homeschooling community, offering ideas to celebrate successes, overcome obstacles, and strike the perfect balance between structure and freedom.

How To Stay Motivated

Laurie Garcia

"I reflect on my experience in school and how I never really learned anything. My kids are leaps and bounds ahead of me when I was their age, and they are so lively, creative and happy."

Jacqueline Merville

"We take every Wednesday off! Prevents burnout. Also, I’m a huge proponent of finding and using curriculums that maintain my sanity and are fun for the kids AND me!"

Tiffany Howlett

"I take 1 week off every 6 weeks. I need it, my kids need it. It gives us all a chance to get recharged, and I have noticed it helps ALOT. I also am willing to change it up if I see it is not working. I will do online, outside learning, more field trips, book work, print offs, etc. Whatever it takes to make learning enjoyable. The best thing I have found that helps us keep on keeping on is to stay flexible."

Skill Mastery

How do you help your child through a plateau when they’re stuck on a skill or concept?

Kim Petty

"Incorporate their interests into the topic so it’s relatable and fun."

Diana Brewster

"Move on to another topic and revisit it. Sometimes changing things up helps. That will give you time to look at alternative ways to teach it that might help."

Lara Saldaña

"For me it depends. If they are stuck and I’ve tried multiple different ways to teach it I’ve backed kids up a couple months and redone concepts leading up to it. Sometimes it’s just a different teaching technique needed. My daughter is very very visual and struggles with math so I started making her use the math blocks every single problem just so she could see the math working and that really helped it click in her head better.

Sometimes switching gears and focusing on something else or pausing regular school and working through a fun unit study or something can break through the frustration of a concept and then you can revisit it again."

Diane Robertson

"I make sure that we cover it every school day and keep pushing on until it's learned. We don't move ahead until they understand the topic. And some things simply take more time and perseverance. I believe it's good for kids to learn that they can conquer things that are hard for them. My kids who have had to work hard for their success are generally better at succeeding than my kids who have had everything come easy to them."

Sondra Price

"I try to change the approach and find a way to apply it to one of their interests or passions. Like if fractions are frustrating, cook or bake something together from a recipe that you double or half, or pause and switch to music (measures and beats are all fraction work), or gardening or some kind of craft that requires dividing things into equal parts. Geometry principles can be connected through art and nature study. If they're strong in math, but struggle in reading, do more word problems or find a TV show or game they like that's been adapted into a book or comic - or go on an adventure and have them read the signs to find your way, etc."

Ashley Wright

"Games! Also, sometimes we just need a break and to come back after the hind brain gets a chance to process things a bit. Sometimes it's a developmental thing that a child just needs more time to develop before they can get it. If it's something I think they can get, I'll look for different explanations. There are tons of amazing YouTube videos explaining all sorts of topics."

Challenging Kids To Excell

How do you help kids who are "behind"?

Catie Harlin

"We simply don't compare. All children grow and learn at their own pace. All we need to look for is Progress. Have they gotten further than where they were when we first started, regardless if its an inch, or a mile.....That's what we look for."

Erik N Megan Samborski

"As long as my child is making forward progress I'm not worried. It's very typical for children to progress at different intervals. They will likely grow leaps and bound when they are ready."

Savanah Diamond

"Honestly I just don’t compare my child to other children. All children learn at different rates. My child is *technically* on a kindergarten level in reading. He is progressing quicker now, but started very slowly. He’s on a third grade level in math. All children are different and learn at their own rates. Don’t compare, just give your child time and the resources to learn! It will click eventually."

Modesty Nwabueze

"When your child appears to be 'behind' in a certain area, identify the cause and address it. You need to be patient, supportive, and act as your child's cheerleader to encourage him to do his best. Be willing to accept his best in this area while praising him for the areas in which he excels."

Marissa Casas

"My third grader wasn’t ready for multiplication. We stepped back, did second grade Math instead, and she told me when she was ready to move forward and wanted to go back to learning multiplication again. It took 6 months, and now that she’s ready, she’s doing wonders.

Basically, allow yourself the freedom to do what your child needs, and the rest will follow when they are ready. And they’ll learn so much easier when they are ready. Oh and figuring out their learning styles helps too."

Megan Eckert

"I change the learning style. There are many different ways to learning. If they aren't understanding one way, we try another. If that doesn’t work, then we do repetition. Repetition DOES work. It gets boring though so you have to throw in some fun stuff."

Melissa Renee

Supplement or change curriculums. My son didn't read until 3rd grade so we continued with our language arts verbally. But i supplemented with work books to help him with the dyslexia. We also did phonics curriculum during our holiday/ summer breaks so he didn't lose any progress. He's now reading almost 2 grades ahead!"

Samantha Mcclintock

"If its something we have covered and its just not clicking I will revisit with a different method of teaching. If its something we just haven't touched on yet I look at my goals and figure out where it fits. My kindergarten 6 year old is still behind with his LA level but we are touching base with a method geared towards dyslexia and its starting to click better. However he is hitting some 1st and 2nd grade levels in other areas. I don't stay at one level from every subject. I let him go at his pace with guided assistance."

Ann Clark

"Flex. The beauty of homeschool is meeting your child where they are at and working through those obstacles with patience and grace. In example, my daughter is a fantastic reader and writer. She's almost written a whole book on her own and it is amazing. But, math- that's a completely different topic. She struggles with mental math and all of the processes that they try to teach in new math. We have stepped back and adjusted. Instead we are working on financial literacy, memorizing facts and such. My son is the opposite. He can't spell correctly. He is very phonetic when it comes to writing. I can totally see what he is trying to say just because I know his brain works this way. He is a math wizard and loves science, coding and building. My youngest, well- she is just strong willed and stubborn. it'll be interesting to see what professions they choose when they are grown."

Amy Bailey

"Focus on their strengths and make a plan for their weaknesses. And remember sometimes it's not about ability or resources, it's about time. Sometimes it just needs extra time to "click" so don't give up or give in. I really struggled with spelling, I'm embarrassed to say even all throughout high school, tutoring didn't help. Then it just clicked. I have no idea how or why. But all the information was in there from the hard work everyone put in, the door was just locked until it wasn't."

Read the Homeschool Quest magazine for more tips on how to level up your homeschool!